In the busiest
streets, in the heart of Dar es Salaam, Sabrina was hurrying heading to the
famous market, Kariakoo to buy something. Despite her health condition being
worse, she hurried to the place where vegetables and fruits were sold, her new
born infant in her chest.
It was only
two month since she gave birth, but as long as there was no one to take care of
her and her baby, she decided to take full responsibilities.
“Sabrina!
Sabrina!” a voice of a woman shouted her name, she turned back trying to
concentrate where the voice was coming from. It took her few seconds to
recognize who was calling her.
“Nasra!” she
replied to a call in a hesitation.
“Sabrina!
Ooh my old friend, long time no see!”
“Sure! It’s
a very long time.”
“Are you
having a baby? Since when?” Nasra told Sabrina in a very surprised tone.
“It is a
very long and sad story Nasra, we shall talk next time we meet.”
“Ooh sorry!
Can I have your phone number?”
“Where can I
find you then?”
“I’m
residing in Tandale, near police post! See you,” Sabrina said in a hasty manner
and hurried into the market.
Nasra stood
there, gazing as if she is not believing what she saw. Sabrina was her class
mate, and a best friend too. They studied together at Magomeni Primary School
and then Sinza Secondary School. Nasra shifted to Mtwara, Southern Tanzania
when her parents, who was both health workers moved to another working station
and they never met until that day.
“What happened
to Sabrina,” Sabrina sighed in despair and continued to move to a next bureau
de change as she wanted to convert her dollar bills into Tanzanian shillings.
“Give me ten
bunches of ‘mchicha’, a kilo of onions, two of tomatoes and three bunches of
figili. Don’t forget some carrots,” Sabrina ordered a seller, trying to unfold
a knot of her khanga where she puts her money.
Few minutes
later, Sabrina was moving, with a luggage, full of green vegetables and fruits
in her head, and a newborn baby in her chest. The cruel sun showed no mercy to
neither her, nor her baby. She walked for a while, in a very crowded streets
and soon she stood in Msimbazi Bus Stand.
There comes
a daladala and when it stopped, tens of passengers were pushing each other, in
a struggle to occupy empty seats. Sabrina waited for few minutes and then
entered a congested daladala with her luggage and a baby.
This has
been her routine since she was pregnant. For long now, life has been very miserable
to her, she was once selling ‘mataputapu’ in a local bar in Tandale to earn a
living but things was not easy.
“Come and
have a seat young mama,” a middle aged woman told Sabrina, touched by sense of
humanity, as she saw other passengers paying no attention to her, despite her
being carrying a young baby.
Soon a
daladala driver ignited an engine and the journey back to his home place
started. In a sweaty body, Sabrina started to breast feed her baby, paying no
attention to other passengers, including a Good Samaritan woman who offered her
a sit.
As the
daladala moved, Sabrina was immersed into bitter thoughts. She looked at her
baby’s face, it reminded her of Iqram, her handsome boyfriend who dumped her
when she was carrying a two month fetus in her womb.
She
remembered a moment where they lastly argued. She remembered how hardly Iqram
punched her face, causing her to lose a tooth and left her with ruptured lips,
just because she denied to abort as he wished.
“You are
crying! Aren’t you?”
“Crying
relieves my heart!” Sabrina replied in a tone that caused anyone near her to
turn to her. She dried her tears with a palm and then concentrates in breast
feeding her baby as if nothing has happened.”
To be
continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment